Use of the word "thug" has reached...thug-like levels!!

[Vector1]

Originally Posted by CoolZombie

Racist white conservatives use the term interchangably with "black". They call Obama, Neil Degrasse Tyson and Denzel Washington "thugs" since its their name for black people and lots of websites filter out that name they prefer to use for blacks.

Well if your tripe were accurate then what label would you put on white liberals who use the term?
What about black liberals who use it?

Don't forget that recently both the black female mayor of Baltimore and the black male president (both of whom are uber liberal) used the term thug as well.
What do you infer and assume about them?

Lastly, your absurd assumption that racists use the word thug instead of n igger because the forum censor filters out derogatory racial pejoratives, is also weak sauce.

Let's see how many other stereotypical racial slurs toward blacks are prohibited which would render the word thug the only remaining choice;

spear chucker
coon
porch monkey
spook
coon
etc.

How about for other races or religions;

mic
wop
wet back
honky
camel jockey
shylock
polock
slope head

Look at that, my preview feature shows that all sorts of pegoritives can be used by racists. So that kind of blows your liberal rant out of the water, doesn't it?


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[lucky2balive]

if ya don't want to be labeled a thug, don't behave like or hang out with, a thug...

seems simple to those with basic common sense...so maybe 5% of the population apparently...sigh

[SVTLightning]

Originally Posted by lucky2balive

if ya don't want to be labeled a thug, don't behave like or hang out with, a thug...

seems simple to those with basic common sense...so maybe 5% of the population apparently...sigh

Common sense doesn't fit the baiters agenda.

[Eeyore1954]

Originally Posted by Pretzelogik

I like hooligans myself.

Scalawag is my word of choice.

[Eeyore1954]

Originally Posted by thefragile

It is if you're a con. Look no further than this or the politics forum.

I would say look no further than your imagination. Because what you say is not true.

[bg7]

Originally Posted by Suburban_Guy

Thug is conveniently used here by some to deliberately provoke and incite, without having to use racially derogatory terms.

It's a sly and backhanded way of venting and getting your licks into a particular racial group, without getting outright trouble with the mods.

So transparent even an infant could see what's going on.

Where I grew up, which was about 98% white, thug was used to describe white thugs all the time.

[bg7]

Originally Posted by Eeyore1954

Scalawag is my word of choice.

I hope you don't pronounce it that way!

Its Scallywag

[cindersslipper]

I love the word "thug".

I read some young teenage rage girl described as a "vicious little thug" who shouldnt be treated any differently because she was a pretty young thang, and it was so apt!

[madison999]

Originally Posted by lucky2balive

if ya don't want to be labeled a thug, don't behave like or hang out with, a thug...

seems simple to those with basic common sense...so maybe 5% of the population apparently...sigh

The word tool seems appropriate sometimes. Just sayin'.

You missed the point of this thread entirely.

[Rescue3]

Originally Posted by WaldoKitty

According to Websters, "Thug" has been in used for 204 years.

WaldoKitty sent us on the right path: Thugs have been around for about ever.

Websters notwithstanding, the thugs have been around for centuries.

And race? Turns out they are Indian. (Like, next door to Pakistan kind of Indian.)

The thugs were first written about circa 1665 (in Thevenot's Voyages). They were also called the Phansigars (stranglers) owing to their brutal form of robbery followed by murder by strangulation. The OED also notes their names as Thags, Thegs, Thugges and Thugge (sing.). I believe they were finally done in by the British/Indian government during the 1800s, but until their demise, they were highway robbers par excellence, known for also murdering their victims.

Mia Bloom, a noted academic in the field of terrorism, has quite a history on them in her next-to-latest book, Dying to Kill: The Allure of Suicide Terrorism. (New York: Columbia University Press, 2005) pgs. 4-5, 11, and 203 fn-11. Mia cites their history as going back 2,500 years, though I am unable to find any other source that says so. (I'll ask her next time I see her.)

So thank you WK for the clues - a thug refers only to a highway robber and murderer; the race was south Asian-Indian, and anything else is merely recent construct.